After what feels like a month or more of quite windy conditions and small swells, Cloudbreak came back to life, scoring a 9 out of 10.
That’s according to our Gold Coast based resident photographer, Josh Bystrom who’s no stranger to Cloudbreak or a good East Coast swell. “Every wave – one after the next was hitting the ledge perfectly at a solid 6-8ft. Tide, wind and swell working in unison to create some truly special moments. The Namotu crew held it down early with Benny, Caleb and lifeguard newcomer Josh Glennon riding some incredible waves before a scrum of pro surfers got out there. The Colapinto brothers, Liam O’Brien, Ryan Callinan to name a few dragging their knees or taking low lines to navigate the lip line and maximise their time spent in the barrel.”
“Those who didn’t want a piece of Cloudbreak headed to Restaurants which was double overhead on the bigger sets and reeling down the reef. A little slower than usual with the longer interval but that didn’t stop the froth levels of the guests.”
Today is a lay day, lefts is probably 4ft out the front, Cloudy a bit bigger but all eyes are on what tomorrow and Friday will bring. More to come!….
Josh shot all morning and has put together a small gallery from the day. We’ll update it with more images as the week progresses.
Weekend Update…
The second swell for the week came on Thursday, it packed a long period energy punch too. Namotu were on it early as usual, Benny; Caleb and Island newcomers, Liam O’brian(LOBB) and Creed McTaggart as well as Cloudbreak legend Ryan Hipwood. I shot the session for an hour and a half first thing, and for a period of about 45 minutes, Cloudbreak’s first ledge was absolutely incredible. Each set barely hanging onto the firstledge and minimal wash-throughs. Creed and LOBB went back-to-back on some crazy waves (see video).
The following two days we saw the wind drop completely off opening up great sessions at Pools and Wilkes too. Pictured is Luke Brumby dropping in on a solid lefts wall and Namotu guest Jason Boon coming hard off the bottom.
The boys RJ and Sebastian were slaying fish all week on the water (below) and the vibe around the resort has been at an all time high! According to Benny as “The best surf week of the year”– I find it hard to disagree with that. – Words and images by Josh Bystrom.
